Current Clean Air Regulations require air pollution sources to remove a certain percentage of particulates from air streams generated by air pollution sources. This particulate removal is accomplished by a variety of existing commercial devices including paper or cloth filters, centrifugal separation, electrostatic precipitation, water bath filtration and HEPA filters. The choice of removal apparatus is dictated by the size and concentration of the particulate material that must be removed.
By far the largest source of particulate emissions (in terms of number of emission sources) is industrial painting operations. In normal industrial painting operations, the object to be painted is introduced into a spray booth or room. The object is spray painted using an atomizing device in operational connection with a source of compressed air. The "over-spray," that is, paint particles remaining in the air, is then removed from the spray booth to provide a healthier work environment and to minimize the accumulation of paint residue within the work area.
Removal of airborne paint particles is normally accomplished by filtering the air stream and subsequently venting the filtered air to the external atmosphere. The filtering procedure involves the use of high volume fans that draw the air through filters normally placed within the walls or ceiling of the spray booth. Most industrial applications employ disposable paper filters, which when saturated with paint particles, are discarded and replaced. The replacement of these paper filters is costly from both a production and environmental perspective.
Therefore, there exists a need for a reusable filter for a paint spray booth that may be cleaned and reused, yet effectively removes particulate matter from an air stream.